


i'll burn your name into my throat.

by orphan_account



Series: can’t live without you [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Gen, M/M, mentions of donghyuck and mark, pls this is so bad how am i still alive, prince!taeil, ten is not amused, terrible attempts at flirtation, uh, vamp!kun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-22
Updated: 2019-05-22
Packaged: 2020-03-09 19:43:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18923782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “And I’m always right.” Ten says. He licks his lips, moving the glass away. “Didn’t he try to kill you?”“Yeah, he did.” Kun can still vividly remember how cold the blade had been against his neck when Taeil pressed it into his skin, the rain mixing with the blood on his cheek and the look in his eyes when he’d asked if Kun had any last words. “Cute, isn’t he?”





	i'll burn your name into my throat.

Kun rather likes humans like Taeil. They have too little patience, usually hold baseless grudges, are too attractive for their own good, and have far too much blood than necessary.

 

He’s acutely aware of the sound of Taeil’s heart skipping a beat when he looks across the ballroom and meets his eyes. It’s precious, how he straightens up immediately when he registers that it’s Kun, his eyes narrowed into slits behind the intricately decorated mask he’s wearing. He’d been a sight to behold even in the dark cloak with blood streaked across his cheek and crimson splattered on his dainty wrists, holding a blade that didn’t quite fit in his hands, a royal reduced to nothing, and he’s certainly more appealing now, in pale green robes to signify his noble lineage, face flushed and red in the light from the chandelier, a crown that doesn’t quite fit on his head. It makes Kun smile slightly, the way Taeil’s royal, straight-faced facade is stripped down to how flustered he is when he sees Kun.

 

“The lengths you’d go for attention never fails to astound me,” Ten says, and when Kun tears his eyes away from Taeil to give him a look, he’s already got a drink in his hand. The only reasons he’d agreed to come to this little party with Kun in the first place are because he wanted to see which air-headed mortal had taken his fancy this time and because the royals never disappoint when it comes to alcohol. “Him? Seriously? He has bad news written all over him.”

 

Ten looks nice today. Lips tinted red, either from the blood glass he’d drunk before leaving the manor, or because of the artificial coloring he’s prone to using these days in the name of style. The robes he’d had Hendery pick are too big on him, and every time he shifts, there’s a flicker of skin, puncture wounds everywhere. (Yukhei was over-eager, as always.) Ten looks positively delightful, like what a man’s last meal should be, and even if Kun has another attempt on his immortal life by a certain prince with a sharp blade and an even sharper tongue, it’s a good to know that he can go back to the manor and fuck Ten into his place as many times as he wants.

 

“You say that every time,” Kun tells him, utterly bored of this conversation already. Taeil is still resolutely ignoring his existence on the other side of the ballroom, but Kun doesn’t have to look at him to know that his eyes keep flickering over to him.

 

“And I’m always right.” Ten says. He licks his lips, moving the glass away. “Didn’t he try to kill you?”

 

“Yeah, he did.” Kun can still vividly remember how cold the blade had been against his neck when Taeil pressed it into his skin, the rain mixing with the blood on his cheek and the look in his eyes when he’d asked if Kun had any last words. “Cute, isn’t he?”

 

Ten rolls his eyes. “I’m going to find a pretty lady to dance with. Try not to get yourself killed.” He puts his drink down and pauses. “And for fuck’s sake, don’t fucking kill him. We’ve moved around enough and Yukhei likes the manor. I don’t want to have to tell him we’re moving because you killed the prince of our kingdom.”

 

It’d be childish to stick his tongue out at Ten and tell him to stick his advice up his own ass, so Kun doesn’t do that. Instead, he pinches the most recent bruise Yukhei had left on Ten’s neck and tells him to have fun, even when he winces and hisses like a provoked cat.

 

________

 

(Kun is one out of the seven vampires who currently live in the kingdom, which means they get a lot of perks. Their own manor, because no one wants to walk right into their territory. Their own blood supply from the healer’s hut because they don’t hunt. Lessons for Xiaojun, Yangyang, Hendery and Yukhei from the local tutors because the Accords mean they’re entitled to school just as much as mortals are. Work for him, Sicheng and Ten, him in the palace library filling the gaps between books and teaching royal brats about diplomacy and history and Ten in the healer’s hut cutting into sick people and Sicheng in the palace courts entertaining guests of all ages. They live a good life, one Kun knows they’d never have if they lived anywhere else.

 

But being a vampire also means that he gets a lot of shit. No one still talks to him unless they have to because he’s got sharp fangs. Kids at the marketplaces cower when he goes to buy apples. The royal kids insist on the doors being open during their lessons and refuse to stay unless they have their guards in the same room. Kun doesn’t know how to tell him that he actually doesn’t pounce on anything with a heartbeat because over two hundred years of vampirism has given him the patience  _ not  _ to do that. Even the King, the one who’d extended him the offer to work on the Accords, can’t seem to look at him in the eyes. He’s still the monster they all think he is, even if he’s gotten good at co-existing with humans.

 

He’s always conscious of his own actions, knowing that a simple slip up could send him hurtling back to the streets or get him and his friends into a burning pit.

 

Which, he’ll admit, is the first of the reason he didn’t immediately kill the crown prince as soon as his blade was turned on him.

 

Taeil is next in line for the throne, the eldest of the three sons of the king. Kun never had the pleasure of meeting him until the whole tried-to-kill-each-other fiasco, but he does know his brothers. Mark is a little too old to be Kun’s student in the palace, but he’s one of the few people who can look Kun in the eyes while talking. Donghyuck is one of Kun’s less prejudiced students, who hates lessons with a flaming passion but still shows up anyway. Because of the two of them, he’s only heard of Taeil in passing. Their brother travels a lot, for diplomatic reasons, he’s slain a dragon before, he’s going to take over the kingdom, he writes to them, he’s coming home soon, and so on.

 

Kun didn’t mean to get dragged into the squabble with the rogues and the royal escort in the first place. He was on his way to the manor after picking up his apples when he’d almost bowled over because an arrow of blessed metal had barely missed him, and then there was a black cloaked figure being hurled straight at him. He’d dropped his apples trying to avoid being knocked over.

 

It was raining, but Kun couldn’t exactly run from the situation. He’d been living here three years: the rogues were his responsibility just as much as the other civilians. Ethically, it was the right thing to do. He hated to kill vampires -- they were a lot worse than killing humans, actually -- but he steeled himself to the ground and finished the job anyway. It’d be a show of loyalty to the king if not anything else.

 

He’d been about to give himself a pat on the back and flee from the scene when he’s sure that there’s nothing else there, but the moment he turned around, there was a blade aimed dead in the space between his eyebrows, a red haired man in a navy blue cloak who looked like he wanted  _ murder _ , and suddenly the apples were the last of his worries.

 

Anyway, that’s how Kun met Taeil, the next in line to the throne, the elder brother of Donghyuck and Mark who had slain a dragon, vampire blood on every patch of exposed skin and the rain making his red hair stick to his forehead and his eyes shine like candles at midnight, and despite the situation, Kun had thought that he was very beautiful.

 

“I’m sorry,” the prince had later gritted out, when he’d been told that Kun wasn’t hostile and was the kingdom’s citizen. Fury and embarrassment looked wonderful on him, shades of red on his cheeks, heat crawling up his neck, the sound of his heart stuttering in his chest like a broken rattle toy.

 

“It’s quite alright, your grace,” he’d told Taeil, and didn’t quite miss the way his pulse quickened when Kun smirked at him.)

 

_______________

 

Kun aimlessly wanders around the party for about an hour before he finally feels the prince approaching him. He hears it more than he feels it: the prince has a fairly distinctive heartbeat. It’s quicker than most. Like a staccato.

 

He’s even better looking in the light of the ballroom, skin the color of honey, eyes shining like the stars had fallen in them overnight. Kun rather likes that he isn’t smiling. He likes the way Taeil has emeralds stitched onto his sleeves, a ribbon around his throat like he’s a gift, rings on his fingers. He likes the natural pink flush high on his cheeks and the way he bares his neck out like he has no idea what he’s doing.

 

Kun rather likes  _ him _ .

 

“Your grace,” Kun greets, and he can’t help the way his lips curl up into a smirk when he meets the prince’s eyes. (Thud-thud. The prince likes to pretend he doesn’t care about Kun but the way his heart stutters begs to differ.) The prince pauses, lips parting and eyes flickering from Kun to the crowd at the side, before he takes the seat next to Kun with a soft sigh. “You look wonderful, as always.”

 

“Kun,” Taeil greets back, and then adds, “Yes, I assume I look better than a bloodstained hunter tonight.”

 

“I mentioned that I wasn’t holding a grudge over it.” Kun says. Ten passes by, barely repressing a smirk at the sight. They must look quite funny to the rest of the room -- the crown prince, the heir to the throne, sitting next to the vampire scholar. “His highness was seeking what was in the best interest of the community.”

 

“I tried to stab you between the eyes,” Taeil says. He has a funny way of talking, a bit blunt at the edges and cold in his tone though it doesn’t sound intentional.

 

“Water under the bridge, and all that,” Kun waves a hand dismissively in the air. The corner of the prince’s lips quirk up at that. He’s somehow even prettier when he half-smiles.

 

There’s a lot wrong with this. Kun isn’t stupid -- he’s not supposed to be fucking around with a mortal, much less royalty. He’s trusted by the king, and the ultimate betrayal of the trust that’s been placed in him will be if he lets this get out of hand. 

 

“Do you dance, your highness?” Kun asks, after a brief pause.

 

The prince’s heart beats, three staccatos in a row.

 

“What a coincidence,” Taeil says, words as sweet as the blood of a trusted lover, and when Kun looks at him, his eyes glitter like gemstones in the dark and his mouth curls up in a pretty, crooked smile. It might be a game, but it’s obviously one he’s willing to play, however risky it is. “I came here to ask you the same thing.”

**Author's Note:**

> it's 2AM and i apologize


End file.
